Trading Standards are advising consumers to be cautious of websites that lead them to believe that they are buying from a UK based company, after the number of complaints has risen in recent months.

Scambusters is issuing the warning following the National Trading Standards eCrime Centre (NTSeCC) were made aware of complaints about childrens’ dresses sold online which have either not arrived, or have not been of the quality the consumer has expected. When customers tried to return items they were unsuccessful as the company turned out to be based in China.

Attached is an example of one dress which a customer believed to be misdescribed and of poor quality, but which they have been unable to return, resulting in a loss of around £80.
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The Council has admitted that modernisation work at the crematorium on Bishopthorpe Road is 3 months behind schedule.

The contract is also likely to be overspent by £50,000.

The lamentable standard of debate in the Labour Cabinet is perhaps best demonstrated by this exchange at the last Council meeting.

Question to the Cabinet Member for Crime and Stronger Communities from Cllr Reid: “How many residents have attended Ward Committee meetings so far during this municipal year and how does this compare to the same period in 2010?”

Answer: Ward Committee attendance is significantly down on previous years. This is likely to be due to the fact that ward committee funding is much reduced, owing to cuts from the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Government.

In reality, despite cuts in funding, there are unspent funds in several ward budgets as voluntary organisations are throwing in the towel in protest over the onerous conditions being imposed by Labour for grant support.

The Cabinet member was unable to coherently explain why the annual ballot of resident’s opinions had been abandoned other than to hint that he preferred a system of patronage by Ward Councillors! Despite participation by residents hitting an all time low, it appears that’s some Labour Councillors are going to manufacture projects to use up the “surplus” ward committee funding .

Ward Committee ballot turn out. click to enlarge

One well known voluntary sector organisation in the City has apparently refused to participate in a grant management system being implemented by a Council contracting body known as “Your Consortium”. More about this next week.

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The numbers, wanting to rent homes from the Council or Housing Associations in York, has risen by over 2000 applicants (78%) since Labour took control of the York Council.

In addition over 17,000 are registered for homes with partner Councils in the Yorkshire area.

Despite this demand, the Council has seen a significant drop in the number of new homes completed.

Discounting specialist student accommodation, only 151 new homes have been completed in York so far during this financial year.

Only 29 of these are classed as “affordable”.

2012/13 could prove to be the worst year, for new family home building, in the City’s modern history.

The Council has rejected the idea of approving more homes to be let at “intermediate” rents (80% of full market rents) but has failed to identify a way of constructing any additional council houses.

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Age UK York, Older Citizens Advocacy York (OCAY) and City of York Council are sharing information and resources with the aim of ensuring older people in York keep safe and well.

Over the next few weeks, work to prevent older residents becoming the victims of ever more sophisticated scams will be undertaken.

City of York Council has recently been alerted to a new ruse used by bogus traders preying on older people. The council’s Trading Standards team has heard that a friendly looking man calls at the door offering to clean gutters – for £5. When the householder agrees the work begins, a few minutes later he returns saying there’s a problem with the roof, which looks quite serious – he has seen some birds flying through a gap in the tiles and produces a piece of wet insulation to confirm the leak is bad.

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